


Transitional Magic

by Woodpeltneko (Woodpelt_the_pussycat)



Series: Trans Twins AU [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Trans Character, Canon-typical fourth wall breaks, Canon-typical swearing, Dungeons & Dragons Magic, Gen, Help Out, Loose Interpretation of Dungeons & Dragons Magic, Non Canon cycles, Trans Taako (The Adventure Zone), Transitioning, Transitioning is easier when you're the most powerful transmutation wizard in the multiverse, as in they refer to spell slots, non canonical Trans Character, srry maggie ily, very brief misgendering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24354541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woodpelt_the_pussycat/pseuds/Woodpeltneko
Summary: Of course, Lup is trans. But what if Taako was too?--I got very carried away in this AU even though not much actually changes? I'm going to post some highlights of it and this is the first one!
Relationships: IPRE Crew | Starblaster Crew & Lup, IPRE Crew | Starblaster Crew & Taako, IPRE Crew | Starblaster Crew - Relationship, Lup & Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Series: Trans Twins AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1758382
Kudos: 57





	Transitional Magic

**Author's Note:**

> Relevant headcannons: Lup and Lucretia don't use spellcasting foci in the SC until Lup makes her Umbrastaff. Wands and foci bond to a soul, not a body and if someone's soul is similar enough they can use the wand also!  
> :) enjoy!  
> Also, the big chunk of italics is pulled from the transcript, with some slight changes for POV.

From a very early age, the twins knew they were different. It wasn’t just the way they were passed around by relatives and joined their first caravan by age 20 (dreadfully young for elves, some might say). The big difference between them and other people was the way they reacted to others referring to them. How they both cringed when someone asked their names. 

They were always trouble makers, though their favorite prank to pull on other people was to switch clothes and see how long it took for others to realize that it was a boy in the skirt and blouse and a girl in shorts and vest. This prank was met with scolding from their immediate family, and vague amusement from most others. Something about the time between switching clothes and getting caught felt wonderful to them.

At the third caravan they simultaneously decided to lie about their names. She turned into Taako and he turned into Lup. They were definitely not traditional elven names, and got some raised eyebrows from other elves and half elves in the caravan, but over all they loved the new names. 

At the next caravan Lup met a half orc named Birch who wore bandages over their chest to make their body look more masculine. They also didn’t use binary pronouns. Lup wondered if his sister would like to do that too. 

By the time they were 28 the twins had switched pronouns. Lup felt infinitely better when people called her a woman. Taako preferred being called a man, but also loved the way people would sometimes struggle to decide whether to call him ‘sir’ or ‘ma am’. 

When they were 50, Taako came to Lup with a spell that would switch their consciousnesses places. Lup would be in Taako’s body and Taako would be in Lup’s. After Taako showed her a weaker version of the spell that lasted a day, Lup could hardly wait. It took a month to prepare for the stronger version of the spell, and when it was over Lup hugged herself in her new body, marveling at the subtle softness of her chest and hips. Taako touched his Adam’s apple and tested his voice, tracing a hand down his new body. They felt right now. 

And that was that.

Or so they thought. 

Everyone on board the Starblaster stares at the unfamiliar planet that seemed almost to have replaced their home planet. Except the twins. They were both overcome by a profound feeling of wrongness, and it wasn’t related to the fact that they just saw their world consumed. They look at each other simultaneously, and retreat to Taako’s room. 

“What the fuck, Taako,” Lup hisses. “You said it was permanent.”

“It was!” he snaps, frantically flipping through his spell book. “This shouldn’t be happening! It lasted almost a hundred years. Maybe the dude that came up with it was a shitty human dude and died before it wore off?” He dissolves into muttering to himself, trying to figure out why the hell he had ended up back in his sister’s body. The body he was _born_ in. 

“Taako?”

He doesn’t respond at first, scanning the context of the spell. 

“Taako,” Lup says more forcefully. 

He turns to look at her. “What?”

“I will _cut your dick off_ if you don’t switch us back.”

Taako flips her off and turns back to his spell book. “We don’t have the materials we need for the permanent one, but I think… I can extend the weaker version to last… a while.”

“How long?” 

“I think I can push it to three months, that should give us enough time to gather materials for the permanent version,” Taako tells her, shifting uncomfortably. 

Lup nods and sits down in the middle of the floor.

Taako sits down across from her, his spell book between them, and starts tracing runes in the air with his wand. Just as he finishes the last rune, before he can say the incantation to complete the spell, there’s a knock at the door. 

The twins look up as Lucretia’s voice comes through the door. “Are you two… okay? We’re having a meeting.”

“We’re fine!” Lup shouts, nodding to Taako.

Taako says the incantation as quietly as he can, and finally they’re in the right bodies again. 

Lup stands up as soon as she gets her bearings, tossing Taako’s wand to him. They practically run directly into Lucretia outside the door. She looks at them curiously, but doesn’t say anything more. 

_The last thing they see of the animal kingdom reality before they leave it, before they pass through the threshold, is the Hunger descending, and as it reaches out these long tendrils that start to surround the plane they were just on, they see a flash of light from within the Hunger, and when that light flashes, things move very quickly as the tendrils retract and they pull that entire plane out of orbit, out of the planar system it was in, and pulls it into the Hunger itself._

_As they pass through that barrier, time stops once more, and this time, they feel their bodies shifting to a different position on the deck, and not only that, they see something peculiar, they see these white threads of light begin to encircle the ship, and these threads get caught up in the ring bond engine in the back of the ship, and they interweave there, like in a loom, and when they finally work their way to a position on the deck, all of these threads converge, and they stitch back together Magnus._

_And, he’s got a black eye. And Merle has a cut on his forehead. Everybody is in the exact positions and in the exact state that they were in when they first left their home world. Everyone is back together, and everyone is alive again, and everyone is safe._

And the twins are wrong again. It takes Taako a moment to notice it this time, in awe at everyone being safe, but then he feels it. He’s in Lup’s body again.

He looks at her, and she looks just as spooked as he feels. Taako jerks his head in the direction of his room and the two of them start walking towards it.

“We need to have a meeting,” Davenport announces. “We need to talk about what the _fuck_ just- Taako, Lup, where are you going?”

Taako flinches, but Lup doesn’t miss a beat. “Lup and I need some twin time,” she says, and it takes Taako a moment to process that this is her way of keeping everything _relatively_ normal.

“Yeah, give us, like, a minute to process shit.”

“We can process _together_ ,” Davenport insists.

Taako looks at Lup, worried, and even though she keeps her face blank, he can tell how uncomfortable and worried she is from the way her ears angle down and back.

“Uh, Captain, maybe we should take a moment?” Lucretia says hesitantly. 

Davenport turns to look at her, surprised. 

Barry speaks up next. “Yeah, they’re right. I think we could all use half an hour or so?”

“Okay,” Davenport concedes. “Half an hour, then we _need_ to talk.”

The twins retreat to Taako’s room. 

“Ko, what the _fuck_?” Lup glares at him. 

“It must be the ship,” Taako says, then faceplants into his bed. 

“But everyone else is how they were when we left.”

Taako pushes himself up. “I don’t know, Lulu!” 

“Shit, Taako, I’m sorry,” Lup says, meeting his gaze.

“For what?” 

“Babe, you’re crying,” she tells him. 

He wipes his eyes on the heel of his palm. “Well. At least we have the spell components this time.” Taako stands up and digs through his bag of components for a moment. When he has what he needs he makes a grabbing gesture at Lup. “Wand, please.”

She hands it to him, shifting on her feet. “Do you think it really wore off the first time and… that's what the Starblaster remembers?” 

Taako shrugs, mouthing the incantation to himself. After a moment he gestures for Lup to sit across from him, taking a seat himself. 

She sits down. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Taako agrees. 

The spell is cast without issue and Lup sighs. “We’re going to have to do this for a long time, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, I guess we are.” Whether they’re referring to the cycle of worldhopping the Starblaster has them doing or casting the spell annually, they’re not sure, but either way they’re right. 

At the beginning of the fourth cycle, Lucretia confronts them in her own way. “You two went to Taako’s room again. Why?”

Taako is caught off guard. “What, we aren’t allowed to have some time to ourselves?”

Lucretia shuffles awkwardly. She has a journal in one hand and a pen is tucked behind her ear. “I’m just curious,” she responds, undeterred by Taako’s reflexive defensiveness. 

“It’s not important,” Lup says, and at the same time Taako says, “None of your fucking bussiness.”

“I would _like_ to get as complete of an account as I can, but if you really don’t want it known, that’s fine.”

Lup looks at Taako questioningly. He makes an indifferent noise. 

“Hey, Luce, why don’t you try casting detect magic right now?” Lup prompts

Lucretia looks at them curiously, then casts the spell. Instantly, she can see that they’re covered in magic. “What enchantment…?”

“True body swap,” Taako answers.

Lucretia furrows her brow. “Wait, so, Lup-” she points at Taako.

“Hell no!” both twins protest. 

Lucretia just looks more confused.

“We’re both trans. We use the spell to be in the body we prefer,” Taako explains. 

“Oh.”

“What do you mean, ‘oh’?” Taako narrows his eyes. 

Lucretia shrugs. “It makes sense. I didn’t know that spell existed. It wears off after a year?”

Lup sighs. “It’s _supposed_ to be permanent, but something about the Starblaster messes that up,” she explains. “We think the guy that made the spell had a relatively short lifespan and thought his spell was permanent, but it would have worn off eventually. It probably wore off just before we left our world and the worn off state is what the ship remembers.”

By the tenth cycle, the whole crew knows about the twins’ situation. They all took it surprisingly well. It’s a given that the twins get a moment at the beginning of each cycle to recast the spell. 

It’s the 57th cycle when the twins first end up lacking the materials they need for their annual casting of the spell. They had used the last of their stock in the 56th cycle, assuming they could find more in the next world, but the world they are in now seems void of components they know. Taako manages to cast the weaker version at the start of the cycle, but he can only push it to last a month. The plane of magic is farther from the prime material plane in this world than they’re used to, and it makes it harder to cast the more powerful spells they would be able to in other worlds. 

Lup dreads the end of that month. 

With about a week left in the spell, Lucretia, Barry, and Davenport go to Taako. 

“What is this?” Taako asks, raising an eyebrow at the group that has cornered him in the common space. 

“We figured the three of us might be able to help you with the body swap thing,” Barry explains. 

“At least, maybe we can learn a version of the spell too?” Lucretia offers. 

Taako looks at them, analytical. Of course, after 57 years, some level of trust is ensured, but Taako is still wary about people interfering with their situation. “I’ll get you guys some notes on the spell, I guess? I’m not really sure how you can help?” 

The week ends and Taako finds himself in his sister’s body again. The body is crying, already sitting in the middle of Taako’s room. His heart aches for Lup. She’s always had more trouble than he has with it. Lup walks in with his body, looking distressed. 

“Do you think you can make it last longer this time?” She asks as soon as he looks up. 

Taako wipes tears off his face and waves her over. “I can try, but, Lulu… it’s really hard.”

The door is still open, and there’s a light knock at the door frame. 

“I know a way I can help, if you’d like,” Lucretia says, awkwardly standing in the middle of the doorway. 

Lup looks over at Lucretia. “How?”

Lucretia looks embarrassed for a moment. “I can transfer some of my energy to Taako temporarily, which _should_ help cast the spell with higher power.”

“And, um, it won’t hurt you?” Taako asks. 

Lucretia smiles gently. “No, I’ll just really fucking need a nap,” she assures him. 

“Well, get the fuck over here.” Taako gestures for her to sit down next to him, across from Lup. 

She sits and starts channeling a spell. Taako fidgets. 

“Lup, I’m gonna use all of your fucking spell slots, so if you wanna burn some of mine as revenge, now’s your chance.”

That lightens the mood a little. Lup rips a pocket dimension open and fires off Burning Hands and a couple of Fire Bolts into the rift, then closes it. She grins at Taako, then casts Telepathy on them. 

“Lup!” Taako scolds. “I do _not_ need to hear your fucking thoughts!” 

Lup just smiles wider.

Lucretia puts her hand on Taako’s shoulder and suddenly an electrified feeling spreads through him. His eyes widen and his hands twitch, magic itching to be used. 

“Oh, okay,” he says, because he can’t really think of anything else to say. 

“Just hold on a moment,” Lucretia says, and stands up, walking to the doorway. 

Then Taako sees Barry walk in. He has his wand clutched in one hand, and looks concerned for Lup. 

Lup looks up at him. “Hey babe,” Lup says. 

“Hey. I just wanna help,” he explains. 

Taako grits his teeth, still vaguely aware of Lup’s thoughts. “Lulu, do NOT kiss him in _my_ body!”

Lup just rolls her eyes and takes Barry’s free hand for a moment. “Thanks, Bear.”

Barry sits next to them, channeling his support spell. They wait for a moment, then Barry taps Taako with his wand, and Taako feels another jolt of electric magic rush into his body. 

Taako cringes, there’s so much magic in his body, he needs to use it _soon_. “Okay, okay,” he repeats. “Okay. Barold, Luce, get the fuck out.” Neither Lucretia or Barry question this, and back out into the hallway. 

Taako lifts his wand, his hands a bit shaky. He focuses all the energy in his body, everything he can. He traces the runes, and his hands shake harder. He swallows, and he can’t tell if the feeling in his chest is fear or just the overwhelming arcane energy. He manages to say the incantation, and for a moment nothing happens, and there’s a feeling of despair that's amplified by the Telepathy Lup had cast. Then instantly, he sees Lup’s body in front of him. He has to blink before he realizes that it actually _did_ work. 

“Holy shit!” Lup says. She drops Taako’s wand, rips a pocket dimension open and casts one of the strongest Fireballs Taako has ever seen from her. “Holy shit,” she repeats.

Taako feels more than sees how startled she is. “What the hell,” Taako mumbles. He shakes his head and picks up his wand from where Lup dropped it. “You good, Lup?”

She lets out a sigh and throws a volley of Fire Bolts into the pocket dimension. “I’m good, but that was a _fuckton_ of magic.” The pocket dimension closes up.

Lup stands up and peers into the hallway, where Lucretia and Barry are both waiting. “Hey Bear,” she says, and kisses him on the cheek, then turns to Lucretia. “Thanks, Luce. Super cool support spell.”

Lucretia smiles. “I’m glad I could help.” She looks exhausted, but proud of herself. 

Taako is the only one who doesn’t need a nap after that ordeal.


End file.
